On my radar ...

• The spending review. On his Whitehall Watch blog, Colin Talbot asks why the government is "tearing itself apart over a one-year spending review that doesn't need to happen until next year, if at all". He writes

... the reason George Osborne is looking for £11.5bn of extra cuts in 2015-16 is because his economic and fiscal plans set out in 2010 have gone disastrously wrong. Deficit reduction has stalled, borrowing is up this year and the target for a zero-deficit keeps receding ever further into the future. At current rates its doubtful he'll even reach the 50% deficit reduction target Labour promised in the May 2010 General Election during this Parliament.Instead of sneaking out a quiet Spending Review to cover just one year, SR2013 is turning into a epic Whitehall battle that will be poured over for years to come. Perhaps Mr Osborne now wishes he'd just stuck to SR2010 and bunged out a 'holding' Budget in March 2015?

• Homelessness charity St Mungo's, which is holding its action week. St Mungo's is calling for urgent action to stop homelessness before it starts, as the latest figures show that 6,437 people were rough sleeping in London during 2012-13 – a 13% increase on the year before. The charity is publishing a report on homelessness through the eyes of recent rough sleepers, and has also released a video, in which one of its clients shares his experiences of sleeping on the streets. Meanwhile, the head of the biggest homelessness charity in the north-east of England says the bedroom tax is affecting those who sleep on the streets. The Newcastle Journal reports that former housing minister Lady (Hilary) Armstrong, who chairs the Cyrenians charity, says housing providers are warning they will soon be unable to hand over the types of properties usually made available for homeless people. Armstrong told the House of Lords that previously undesirable one-bedroom properties are to be handed over to tenants trying to downsize to avoid the bedroom tax. The government's benefit reforms have seen rent arrears in parts of the north-east rise by £500,000 in two months, says the Journal.

I could completely understand their reasons if I hadn't told them I had an interview and just missed signing-on without warning anyone.I can also understand their reasons for looking at the time my job interview finished (1.00pm) and thinking, "Hmmm, she can probably make it back from Cardiff and sign on on time at 2.30pm".But they told me NOT to come in on my regular signing-on day and to go in the following day for my new scheduled appointment.Not only that, but I've been sanctioned and left without money for a month. A whole month.Never mind the fact that I have job interviews coming up and no way of getting to them now. Never mind the fact that my phone is due to go out of service from lack of payment and every employer who has my CV has no way of contacting me.No, no. I must be punished. I have been too productive with my time in trying to get employed and, as a result, I must learn what life without money is really like.Thank you, government. My lesson has been learned.Looking for jobs = Bad + No money.

And she adds:

This is a situation I'd never thought I'd find myself in: Having to ask my baby brother whether he could lend me money so that I can buy shampoo and deodorant this week while borrowing my mother's bicycle to ride 30 miles in the rain in my best formal attire to another job interview.